infoarch

This is the end

2005-03-09T05:21:00.000-08:00

Dana and I have accomplished and amazing amount of work in the past five weeks. We have researched almost everything there is to research about the Gulfstream Center For Design's shop policies and machines, we have sythesized the data collected during that research, and we have revised, revised, revised, until the result was satisfactory. I love the signs we have made, and I am in love with the process that has gotten me to where I am now.

I feel like the result of these five weeks is a set of approximatly 35 signs, that can be replicated and produced for other shops around the country. They are simple, straight foreward, easy to read,and highly valuable to anyone who uses shop equipment. In hindsight, I can hardly believe that no one has created anything as remotely useful as our signs before, and there is no reason that they should not be implemented as soon as possible. Despite the fact that there are some kinks to be worked out, these could go up today (if they were all printed out).

dangerous machines...

2005-03-08T21:43:00.000-08:00

dangerous machines...
Posted by: lschlam.

We are so psyched!

2005-03-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

I love when you have a really complicated problem that needs to be fixed and within five weeks, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is my favorite feeling besides the feeling you get when you are well rested.. it almost makes feeling like a crazy meningitis saying person worth it to have created something so beautiful as a well thought out signage system. Does that make sense? Yeah yeah, "write when you have slept, don't waist our time," I know Iknow, but I have to say one more thing. Our signs are really good.

Menegititis is a funny word, but not as funny as mitten

2005-03-07T00:58:00.000-08:00

I am STILL doing illustrator drawings of the dangerous machines. Who knew it would take like, 5 bagillion hours. HAAAAAAAAAa slepp is for loosers

Progress Report

2005-03-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

I have been the illustrator monkey for me and Dana for the past 48 hours, and fourtunatly we are making some progress on the illustrations we need to put in our signs. Unfourtunalty there is still a lot more to do, and time is running low. Dana met with Erin yesterday, and he gave us some very useful feedback on the content of all 36 of our signs. Dana spent several hours yesterday adjusting our content based on that feedback, and if you look at her blog, you will see how awesome they have come out. We have emailed Jon a copy of the almost final layout, and after he gives us his final critique of the content and visual hierarchy of information, we will go ahead and convert all of our signs to match each other. We still need to do some visual style variations, but we think that the content is very cohesive and will be well recieved by all who see it. I am trying to post my illustrations on my blog, but I am having some trouble, so I am going to continue doing my illustartor work and catch everyone up later.

Timetable of Work Completion

2005-03-03T15:19:00.000-08:00

Dana is going to be the one giving the presentation on Wednesday, so she decided that instead of us brainstorming together on it, she needed to sit and stew in her own mind on how to put it together. I told her that was cool, and that I had no problem working on the illustrator machine drawings that we need to complete in order to finish up our sign prototypes. We did manage to accomplish something together though. We were able to come up with a timetable of work completion, that outlines everything we have to do until Wednesday. Here it is:

THURSDAY 3.03.05

-Power Point outline complete

FRIDAY 3.04.05

-Meet with Erin to see if we have covered all pertinent information on our signs
-Ask Jon if he liked our scenario things, and if we should include them in the next presentation
-Have all (simplified) illustrator drawings complete
-Have all 5 visual style variations complete, with 5 color choices for the top pic
-Decide on final visual style
-Start changing all signs to new style

SATURDAY 3.05.05

-Make all changes and corrections so that final prototypes are ready for user testing

SUNDAY 3.06.05

-Plug in all information we have so far in to the power point presentation
-Write sign Heuristics
-Print sample signs for user testing and develop set of actions user needs to complete

MONDAY 3.07.05

-Do two heuristic evaluations
-User test our signs

TUESDAY 3.08.05

-Print out final signs
-Do photoshop work, to make it appear as if our signs are all in place in the model shop
-Work on the benchroom renderings, and place appropriate signage where it belongs

WEDNESDAY 3.09.05

PRESENTATION DAY!!!

Sign System

2005-03-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

Dana and I have decided to meet tomorrow to discuss the layout of our presentation before we move further ahead on our system design. We would like to, in addition to creating a whole lot of signs (approximately 36 of them), make additional suggestions to our client. Such as, a specific training manual for the monitors, a list of things model shop professors should teach during their machine demonstrations, and redesign suggestions for the bench room. We assume that it will be advantageous for us to design the content of our presentation a week before we give it, in order to make the content more succinct. We want to learn our lesson from the last crappy presentation, by managing our time better and attempting to have a more professional level of content. In addition to organizing our presentation in this way, we would like to meet with Erin or Dave to receive some feedback on the content of our final signs. Only after we do a heuristic evaluation of the signs, and make some visual design changes.

Today in class...

2005-02-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

I had a very valuable experience. There were only three people in class (including me), and two very interesting professors. I learned how graphic design has become a commodity, and how industrial designers can prevent our jobs from becoming one as well. The way we can prevent it is to give the consumer quality and competency, and to quote Bob Fee, "Quality is giving consumers no more than they need, but more than they expect... Competency is what you do better that cannot be copied." My take on that is, we as designers must distinguish ourselves from the competitors in manufacturing (Asia), by giving the consumer what the competitors can not. That is, creating a product that not only looks good and works, but has a cultural significance (?) about it that only someone from our own culture can produce. What makes something culturally significant? Maybe it is the knowledge of the response the consumer will have to a product. The only way we can know about that response is to know the audience. I know that some designer overseas has no idea about how I will respond to a bright pink cube. Maybe some designer here (in America), who has done some contextual research of people in my demographic
would have some idea.

Scary to think that it is possible all of the schooling I am going through right now could become a commodity.

Rhino Model

2005-02-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

In my computer aided drawing class, we have an assignment that requires us to do a rhino model of the studio space. I asked my professor if he would allow me to model the bench room instead (because of this sign system project), and he said that I could. So in addition to designing the signs for the bench room and the model shop, Dana and I will be able to represent the location of our signs in the bench room. It will also allow us to represent rearrangement suggestions for objects such as the benches, the stools, the shelves, and anything else that we see opportunity for improvement. Because we are thinking of developing a student reference area for the bench room, this 3 dimensional model will give us a visual representation of its location as well.

Concept Formation

2005-02-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

Dana and I stayed up really late last night creating wireframes of all of the signs we are proposing to create for our system. It went really well, and we were able to work out the general layout of the dangerous machine signs, as well as the content for the montiors' sign, the "what does 'clean' mean" sign, and the emergency procedures sign. Jon gave us some good feedback on them. He told us to do a heuristic evaluation of the signs, using heuristics that we create ourselves for signs specifically. He also told us to rethink the usage of icons that we created, and to reevaluatte the hierarchy of information on each sign, based on the what the end user will see if they quickly glance at our results. The next step will be to finalize the layout on one of our signs, then do several explorations of different visual styles with that layout.

They asked me to sign, and I said No!!!!

2005-02-23T11:36:00.000-08:00

Today in class my professor passed out a piece of paper that asked me to sign my name to it, pledging to accept responsiblility of the cleanliness of the benchroom. The piece of paper stressed that this is my last chance to extend the hours of the benchroom, and if my peers and I abuse the priveledge by making it dirty, then it will never have extended hours again. It asked me to sign my name to the paper, as if that will make any difference.

I refused to sign, simply because I have heard all this before. I have been asked to keep the benchroom clean, and my peers have not complied. The reason they have not complied is not thier fault, it is the Industrial Design departments culture that dictates thier behavior. If everyone in this department realized the importance of cleanliness in relationship to professionalism, then it might be different. I refuse to sign my name to a pledge that will not be kept. Sure, I will do my part, but I know for a fact that behaviors will not change if policy does not change

This is not a new idea! We have recently held meeting, after meeting, discussing possible soulutions to this benchroom cleanliness issue. The reslut was a small list of possible soulutions that I personally think could work. Did this "contract" make mention of any of those soulutions? No!!! It asked me the same thing that I have been asked for the past two years in this building. It asked me to take resposibility for something that is everyone's responsibility. We have tried this before, and it didn't work. It is time now to try something DIFFERENT.

If you want some possible soulutions, ask me and I will tell you some. Ask me to sign a paper with bs on it and I will tell you no.

Presentations

2005-02-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

Jon reprimanded the entire class after we gave our horrendous presentations on Monday. We have all learned a very valuable lesson, and must now make up for it by having all of our signs drawn out with five variations by Wednesday. I will post on the blog tommorow what Dana and I accomplish tonight.

New Direction!

2005-02-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

After sitting through Jon's lecture today, I decided to rethink the approach I started to take at the beginning of concept creation. Instead of approaching this problem from a "hey, how do I make some cool descriptive signs that help students use the machines in the shop better?" to a deeper perspective that explores the creation of a new policy in the shop and benchroom. Or more accuratly, a new method of getting students' behavior to conform to the needs of the people in charge.

Concept Sketching

2005-02-14T23:53:00.000-08:00

Dana and I, even though we are working together on the signage project, seem to have different ideas on how we want to start the concept formation stage of this assignment. So when we met last Friday, sketching together did not seem possible, given our very different approaches. So the solution was to work (at least initially) seperatly, and to later combine our work into one big comprehensive exploration of this huge domain.

Dana came up with a large diagram that is a visual and textual overview of every cultural and policy oriented concept that we explored during the research phase. I came up with about 11 different "concept" maps that roughly place on paper a lot of the major coniderations one must take in order to operate the machinery in the shop.
Keep in mind these are really rough outlines of very general concepts, used to wrap my head around what I should be tring to convey to the final audience.

Wood lathe sign

2005-02-14T13:03:00.001-08:00

Wood lathe sign
Posted by: lschlam.

This concept map could be altered to include guidelines for the metal lathe too, or we could just make up two signs

Bandsaw Sign Concept

2005-02-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

Bandsaw Sign Concept
Posted by: lschlam.

This is the most used machine in the shop, and also the machine that most accidents occur on. Coincedence? I think not...

Jointer Sign concept

2005-02-14T12:57:00.000-08:00

Jointer Sign concept
Posted by: lschlam.

Chop Saw Sign Concept

2005-02-14T12:56:00.000-08:00

Chop Saw Sign Concept
Posted by: lschlam.

Drill Press Sign Concept

2005-02-14T12:55:00.002-08:00

Drill Press Sign Concept
Posted by: lschlam.

Metal Break Sign Concept

2005-02-14T12:55:00.001-08:00

Metal Break Sign Concept
Posted by: lschlam.

Metal Grinder Sign Concept

2005-02-14T12:55:00.000-08:00

Metal Grinder Sign Concept
Posted by: lschlam.

Radial Arm Saw

2005-02-14T12:54:00.000-08:00

Radial Arm Saw
Posted by: lschlam.

Sanders

2005-02-14T12:53:00.000-08:00

Sanders
Posted by: lschlam.

Vaccum Former

2005-02-14T12:52:00.000-08:00

Vaccum Former
Posted by: lschlam.

Short interview of Dennis (the janitor)

2005-02-11T13:12:00.000-08:00

Dennis told me officially, that he sweeps the benchroom approximatly every two days, and empties the trash everyday.

Interview of Jesus Rojas

2005-02-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

I interviewed Jesus (one of the model shop professors) on Wednesday, and I wanted to share the results with everyone.

The first series of questions that I asked Jesus involved storage. I found out that he tells his students to storge large materials in the wooden frame provided in the back of the bench room, small stuff in the lockers provided underneath the benches. If the sudents have large tool boxes, then they can store them on the shelf space with a name on it. If they have a fear of it getting stolen, then they can lock it to the shelving unit. When I asked him about the materials stored on the floor all around the bench room, he said that if it doesn't have a name on it, then he will personally throw it away. If it has a name on it, then he will leave it where it is. He doesn't know why the carpet squares are stored on the floor, or who put them there. The extra room that is designated for faculty storage is used by Jesus, Tom, and Mark. The students are not allowed to use it.

Jesus informed me that people think of him as a jerk beacause of his insistance that they follow the shop and benchroom guidelines. He insists that his students wear saftey goggles all of the time, and that they put thier name on everything that they store in the benchroom. He also told me that in order to teach his class (which is held in the benchroom), he must designate two students to clean up before every class, in order for the conditions to be "human."

When I asked him what he wishes the benchroom and shop looks like, he began to tell me about the ineeficient use of space in the benchroom. He pointed out the unutilized space everywhere, and had no idea how to fix it. In addition, he pointed out that current shop monitors don't do thier job correctly, and are unable to see all of the students using thier respective machines. During our interview he repeadedly corrected students inproper use of the bandaws, and pointed out the inattention of the current shop monitor.

Finally, I would like to point out Jesus' reccomendation for punishment of students who repeadedly break shop rules: take thier ids away, and cut them up so that they have to get new ones. That way, noone directly takes money away from a student.

Class discussion

2005-02-09T16:14:00.000-08:00

Today we had a class discussion about the current role the government plays in the regulation of design work, and whether or not that role should be expanded to include more regulations or not.

The first thing I would like to point out is that the majority of the class, when asked this question, went with thier first instincts, and decided that no, the government should not regulate design work. Which I happen to agree with because when it comes to government regualtions, the more stifling the regualtions are, the less creative soulutions become. Over time that could be detrimental to the overall creativity of a population, and in a sense make everyone less intelligent. The postion that the government should not regualte design essentially supports our current designer roles, in its self regulating, self supporting behavior. To have government regulated designs would mean that we as designers, would be FORCED to reinvent our job description. I personally don't want to be forced into anything, that kind of a world is too close to George Orwell's 1984 for my comfort level.

As the conversation bore on however, an argument was presented that went against everyone's first instincts, and suggested that yes, maybe we should allow the government to regulate our design work. Hey, wouldn't that provide us with "constraints" that would essentially narrow down our options, and as studio classes teach us, make the design work easier/better?

My answer is yes, it could make our designs easier and better within the constraints, as long as those constraints are appropriate. Unfourtunatly, I don't feel comfortable allowing the politicians, or anyone else, decide on what design constraints are appropriate. Once I have graduated from SCAD with an Industrial Design degree, I should be, and will be, qualified enough to determine my own design constraints. Any situation where my rights are taken away by the government might make my life easier, but not neccesarily better.

You, the reader, might be shocked by this next bit of information, but I assure you, I am telling the truth:

Someone asked me in the course of this class discussion, "What's wrong with communism?"

I was so shocked by this question that I had to wait till my blood pressure went back to normal until I was able to fromulate an appropriate response.

Response:
Communism will never, ever work, due to the simple fact that it goes against the nature of every thing living on earth. Every living thing on earth wants to live, grow, succed, and reproduce to expand thier gene pool. Communism assumes that humans can, with thier "advanced intelligence", put aside thier natural instincts, and live together in harmony. So to all of you idealistic wierdos, sorry, never gonna happen.

So to recap, I will cry the day my peers decide to relinquish thier control to the government, and take away my freedom as a designer.

Dangerous Machines Research Results

2005-02-07T15:30:00.000-08:00

Today we gave our preliminary research presentations. My overall impression of the results is good, especially because there is no way Dana and I could have sythesized all of that research ourselves. I feel like there is some more room for study when it comes to the air quality of the shop, but in general the information gathered is more than enough for the begginning of concept formation.

As far as the dangerous machine research, we have compiled a very large quantity of both
quantitative and qualititative data. Once interpretated, that data should provide everyone in the class with enough dangerous machine information in order to move foreward with the signage system concept designs. link to word document and ppt should be here

First and foremost I would like to comment on the disturbing results I recieved from asking 9 students and two shop monitors the question, "what machines do you consider to be dangerous machines?" Only one person (a shop monitor that is about to graduate), anwered correctly, "all of them." Those results mean that either not enough people have gotten hurt to realize the danger of machines with moving parts, or the people in charge haven't provided the students/monitors using the shop with the correct information. I vote for the latter. Just for everyone's info, ALL MACHINES IN THE SHOP ARE DANGEROUS.

In addition, I would like to point out that every dangerous machine in the shop needs a sign explaining through either images, or text, or both (preferred) how to operate it. There needs to be another sign that outlines the general saftery guidelines that are applicable to all of the machines with moving parts, and transferable to any machine shop on the scad campus.

Finally I would like to stress the need for policy in regards to punishment administered to bad students, or students who tend to continually break the safety guidelines established for the shop. The truth is, it's convienient to break the rules, and human nature is to take the easier road if an option presents itself. Once we have designed a signage system, there will be no excuse for ignorance, so any misuse of the shop should result in some sort of punishment. I dont know what the punishment should be, all I know is it should exist.

Oh yeah, one more thing, I am real happy to be "in" on this project.

Brand as a Platform

2005-02-07T13:03:00.000-08:00

What does it mean to design within a brand?

Branding is a tool that big companies and corporations use in order to establish a reliable customer base. It is also a tool that is used in order to make a product mean "more" than what its function dictates. Is that good? What about when a brand attempts to make thier customers "feel" a certain way? Can we help consumers of branded products feel better? Are we allowed to?

Plan for Model Shop Research

2005-02-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

Dana and I have decided the method, or approach we are going to take for the research of the dangerous machines found in the shop.

The three main sections of our research include: shop experts (who work at our building), shop monitors/students, and additional outside sources considered experts in thier field.

We have contacted Mark, and made an appointement to interview him Monday morning. We are going to ask him questions, the list is as follows:

What machines in our shop do you consider to be dangerous?
What key things do look for in order to insure someone is using this [machine] correctly?
What problems have you witnessed or heard about students having with this machine?
What would you like every student to know about this machine before they use it?
Can we watch you use this machine? or Can you describe the step by step instructions for the use of this machine?
What problems have you, yourself had while using this machine?
What kinds of saftey equipment do you use?
What machine do you feel the safest operating? Why?

We plan on asking Mark these questions for every machine that he considers dangerous, and then we are going to take pictures of all of them. We will audio record the interview as well as taking handwritten notes.

On Saturday night Dana and I are going to interview students and monitors in the shop. We will try and speak to students from a wide variety of skill sets, and ask them questions that can be easily related to the questions we will ask Mark on Monday. The tenative list of questions is as follows:

What machines do you consider to be dangerous?
What steps are you sure, or unsure about in the operation of this machine?
Have you ever experienced a dangerous or harmful experience while working in the shop? describe please
If so, what do you know now that you wish you knew back then?
Which of the dangerous machines do you know the least about? Are you scared to use it?
What kinds of saftey equipment do you use?
What machine do you feel the safest operating? Why?

After compiling that data, at some point Dana is planning on conducting a Heuristic Evaluation while making a pink foam model using the bandsaw.

The next phase of our research involves contacting outside resources, in order to gain knowledge about the proper, or different way of operating dangerous machinery. Finding out industry standards, and behavior no nos.

Putting together the power point presentation, we plan on focusing on the differences and similarities in regards to our findings. The areas in which we recognize existing problems will be highlighted, and discussion of what we plan on accomplishing in further research will take place at the end.

The Model Shop

2005-02-02T14:30:00.000-08:00

We recieved a new assignment last class, invovling the design, or redesign of the model shop signage system. I am working with Dana Smith on on this, and the first thing we decided to do was to propose to the class a collaborative research attempt. So we waited until to day to do a class wide discussion on the delegation of work. The domain of this assignment is huge, so the research of this domain is even larger. In order to understand what we needed to research, it was helpful to assign the research portions into categories. The way we did that was an affininty diagram. The categories we came up with are as follows:

Emotions and Signage – Ryan & Lindy

Emotions

Fear
Comfortable
Inferior
Complicated
Music
Scared of monitor
Uncomfortable
Questions
Where can I get help?
Advanced model shop what’s different?
Knowledge of projects
Where's the shop?
Detail
What is similar about everything in the shop?
Re-education

Physical signage

What tools do we have?
List of every machine
Database
Other shops
On/off buttons
Power outlets
Current safety signs
Icons
Power button
Manuals

OSHA, Safety - Daniel

Personal safety

Power chords
Respiration
Rushing around
Ear plugs
Final weeked riots
Shirts tucked in
Loud noises
Safety glasses
Glasses
Face masks
Close toed shoes
Noise
Talking

Safety objects

Push stick
Guards
Fences

Emergency objects

Fire extinguisher
Eye washer
Explosive paint containers
First aid
What do I do if someone cuts their hand off?

Safety equipment

Shop safety
OSHA
Maintenance
Helen morgan
Fire marshal

Dangerous Machines – Lauren & Dana

Milling machine
Wood lathe
Table saw blades
Bandsaw
Woodcutting machines
Drill press
Table saw
Vaccum formers
Sandblaster
Sanding table
What can machines cut?
What is the best technique for each machine?

Tools and Rules – Ryan & Lindy

Tools

Borrowing from school
Lack of tools
Drill bits
Tool check out
Tool room
Power cords
Air hose
Bender
Check out
Pneumatic tools
Clamps

Rules

Who is allowed in?
Where can I put my sketches
Proper behaviour
Shop passes
Rules
Learning curve
Questions
Can I stand here
Wait for machines
Taking turns

Cleaning

Cleaning
Trash
Garbage
Vaccum
Broom
Dustpan
Cleaning procedures
Personal trash cans

Storage

Storage
Shelving

Experts/Authority, Culture - Peter

Authority

Shop techs
Shop monitors
Whos in charge?
Experts
Who is the monitor on duty?
Jesus
Bitch emails from professors

Bench room

Air Quality, Materials, Cleanup - Jon

Materials

Pink foam
Knowledge of material
Metal
Where do I buy foam
What materials can be used on each machine
Can I cut metal on this
Where do I buy wood

Air quality

Ren shape dust
Respirator
Dangly earrings
Sawdust removal
Breathing masks?
Ventilation
Sanding
Airborne pathogens
Paint booth
Paint room etiquette
Acetone machine
Equipment maintenance

Other postits…

Skill level
Food and drinks
Title fight
Process vs end result
Creative culture
Art Center
Whats the point of models making

Compactor
Rapid prototyping
Make this picture in 3D

How do I use this
Hours of operation
Shop hours

Students
What makes someone an expert?
Egos
“car guys”
Model shop class
Clueless kids
Visitors tour SCAD

The categories are seperated for the people in our class to research. Chap is doing research on his own, and everyone sould have a powerpoint presentation, copies of thier research outlines for 9 people, and everyone is going to try and utilize methods they have learned in other classes to get thier ideas across to our client.

The Skill of Writing

2005-01-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

Today in class we did a little narrative writing excersise that I enjoyed very much. Handwriting on the spur of the moment always tends to produce interesting results for me, and because Jon gave us such a broad subject to explore with words, I really felt free to be creative. My narrative was a fiction story that was written within a few minutes, and even though it was short, it provide the listner or reader with a sense of setting, plot and conclusion.

In addition to being fun, the excersise reinforced for me the knowlege that writing is an essential skill for designers of all kinds to have. The ability to structure a paper or an article or whatever you want to write can only help designers explain thier ideas to others. The art of narrative writing, now that I have learned what it is, seems to be an especially effective tool because it allows the information trying to be relayed to be presented in a vivid and interesting way. It can paint an image for the reader without an actual image present. Therefore, if a designer wishes, both written words and visual cues can give the audience a truly comprehensable understanding of thier ideas.

DAY 1

2005-01-03T10:43:00.000-08:00

Today I attended the first day of my information architecture class. We watched a really interesting video from MTV that presented a day in the life of a woman in an awesome format. It was a fast paced, wordless cartoon that was able, within a few minutes, to show all of the things she did in a day. It was not only intersting to watch, it looked really cool too.
In addition to watching the video, we were told what we are going to learn in this class (what information architecture is), and we were given our first assignment.

The first assignment is called Baseball, Deconstructed. The goal of this first assignment is to research the intricacies of the rules of baseball, and through the creation of a written narrative, a concept map, and a Process Flow diagram, try to structure the rules and what we learned from the research so that they can be understood by a novice.

Sounds like fun.